Aphex Twin

Come to Richard D. James, as the lone Aphex Twin unleashes his double CD opus DRUKQS onto the world. As per his previous efforts, the new record is intricately conceived and constructed, with each track downloading plug-ins from the world's musical mainframe to melodic effect. Be it the skittery, spastic drum & bass beats ballet dancing overtop a series of simple, yet emotional audio tones ("Meltphace 6"), the push and pull velcro-thrust of "54 Cymru Beats" or the unexpected traditional piano tune "Jynweythek Ylow" that kicks off the record, James keeps us guessing. Yet somehow while straining language through a "speak and spell," chopping up jungle with a Ginsu and finger-painting with feedback and found sound, DRUKQS never once loses sight of the musicality needed to pull it off. Yeah, tracks like "Omgyiya Switch 7" or "Prop Gwarlek 3B" (which sounds like a plumber on E) are basically shaped noise, and perhaps 100 minutes is a tad too Use Your Illusion-esque, but like the Dadists of yore, it's not just about the end result, it's also about having the skills necessary to convince us of the patterns in randomness, the beauty of ugliness and that, through willpower alone, any ordinary thing can be transformed into art. And, of course, that any ordinary sound can be danced to.